How is the believer to be certain of his justification? Is he to conjecture that he
was always justified, and must certainly be so now? Is he to dream that by believing an untrue
thing to be true, it will become true? Is he to identify a moment of time in which a great
change passed upon him, and conclude he therefore knows certainly that he is justified, because
he knows when he was justified? Many ideas circulate among professing Christians, but these
conflicting approaches do not all take their origin from the same Scriptures of Truth.
We do not need rare or curious doctrines to make good sense of the matter, nor a new
theology to help us take hold of the blessed comfort of our Justification. The subject
was carefully handled during those times of reformation when the doctrine of Justification
by Faith Alone was most triumphantly asserted, defended, and championed; and the answer
which proved correct and useful then, will not be found otherwise now.

2016.02.27::JTK.

The fourth question is, how the convert may know and be certain of his justification.

VVHen the true convert heareth the different opinions
of Theologues, concerning the act of
justification of a believer, some saying, that it is an
act of God immanent, whereby he willeth the absolution
of the believer; some saying, that it is an act of God
emanent and transient from God upon the spirit of the
believer; some saying it is the sentence of the Judge,
absolving the believing sinner from the curse of the law.
The believer here possibly is at a stand, and knoweth
not how to answer the question till his doubt be loosed.

For the satisfaction of the convert, first, we may
safely say, that it is not material whether the convert
be able to take up the quiddity and formal notion of the
act of justification, provided he be a believer in Christ
and know that the believer in Christ is justified before
God, and that being justified by faith, he hath peace
with God, and can apply these truths unto himself, in
the exercise of repentance and new obedience. But if
possibly, the convert cannot be satisfied till his doubt
be answered, let him consider, that he must distinguish
between justification actively taken as it proceedeth
from God, and justification passively taken as it is
terminat on the justified man. As it is taken actively,
these four things are to be distinguished: 1. God’s eternal
will and decree, to absolve from sin and wrath
every believer in Christ. 2. God’s actual revealing in
time this his gracious pleasure in the Gospel. 3. God’s
judicial application of this general sentence to the believer
in the point of his conversion, whether the believer
perceive his absolution or not for the time. 4.
There is a sensible intimation of this sentence unto the
believer, joined with peace and joy, which the Apostle
calleth the shedding abroad of the love of God in the
heart, Rom. 5.5, and the sealing of the Holy Ghost
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stamping the heart with holiness, Ephes. 1.13. The
first three makes the absolution of the believer certain,
whether the believer thinks so or not; but the fourth,
which is the sensible intimation of this sentence, doth
make the believer both sure and joyfull.

As justification is taken passively, four things may
be distinguished in the believer justified. The first is,
his actual receiving of Christ, offered in the Gospel
for a perfect remedy of sin and misery. The second is,
the Lord’s judicial settling of the general sentence of absolution
upon the believer, as if he had spoken to him by
name, as he did to the Apostles, John 15.3, Now are
ye clean through the word I have spoken unto you, that is,
you are clean from the guilt of sin by my absolving of
you. The third is, the believer’s observing, in a reflect [reflex]
act of his conscience, that he hath fled to Christ
for absolution, and therefore [is] justified indeed. The
fourth is, the feeling and observing of the testimony of
the Holy Ghost bearing witness with his spirit, that he
is a child of God absolved from sin and wrath. The
first two of these, to wit, the act of faith, receiving of
Christ and of the right made by Christ to the believer
in him of his absolution, may be in, and on the believer
without the other two, to wit, his observation
of the act of faith, and the felt intimation of this work
of grace by the Holy Spirit.

2. For solving of the doubt then; as justification is
actively taken, as proceeding from the immanent act
of God’s eternal purpose and decree to justify the believer,
it is no more the actual justification in this life,
of which we are speaking, than the immanent act of
God’s eternal purpose to raise the bodies of believers in
Christ, and to glorify them in soul and body, can
be called the actual resurrection of their bodies, and
glorification of both soul and body in this life.

But the transient act of justification in a judicial way,
which is the Lord’s judicial sentence of absolution of the
believer, declared by his Word, set down now in holy
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Scripture, it is indeed and formally the believer’s justification,
and is judicially terminat upon every believer
in the act of his conversion, whether the believer doth
clearly perceive his own conversion, or be in suspicion
of his being reconciled and justified.

And this may be made to appear, if we compare the
condemnation of the unbeliever with the absolution of
the believer fled to Christ, John 3.18. As he that believeth
not in Christ is condemned already, because
the curse of the law and condemnation, pronounced in
the Scripture by God, the sovereign Judge, stands
against him so long as he doth not believe in the only
begotten Son of God: And this sentence standeth fast,
whether the unbeliever take notice of this sentence or
not, whether he do apply it to himself or not, do find
grief for it or not: So the believer in Christ is relaxed
from condemnation and absolved, and hath right unto
eternal life and begun possession of it, albeit for the time
of his infancy, tentation, trembling and fear, it be not
so, albeit he doth not perceive the blessed change of his
state, nor doth lay to heart, as he might, the words of
Christ judicially pronouncing the sentence, comprehending
him as certainly as if his name were expressed,
John 3.18, He that believeth on him, is not condemned,
and verse 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life, and John 6, from verse 37 to 41. Hence we conclude,
that the formal act of justification of a man fled
to Christ, is to be found in the written sentence of the
judge absolving every believer and the man we speak
of.

There is another transient act of God, in an actual
revelation of justification, wherein the Holy Ghost
openeth the eyes of the believer to behold and perceive
the gift of faith already bestowed on him: Of this
speaks the Apostle, 1 Cor. 2.12. And after that the
Holy Ghost hath pointed out his own grace, bestowed
on the believer, he followeth his work, by giving remarkable
peace and joy as [an] earnest of life everlasting,
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whereof the Apostle speaketh, Ephes. 1.13, In whom
ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel
of your salvation: in whom also, after ye had believed, ye
were sealed with the spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance. Therefore, he that desireth to have
the intimation of his justification, after flying for refuge
unto Christ for relief of felt sin and feared wrath, must
read his absolution in the Gospel, as well as he hath
read, before that, his condemnation in the law. Unto
which sentence of absolution, let him hold fast in his
daily endeavour after sanctification.